Title: Cyprus: Lebanon Needs EU Assistance to Handle Migration Crisis

Cypriot Interior Minister Konstantinos Yiannou stated today, Wednesday, that "his country, a member of the European Union, wishes for Brussels to provide financial and technical assistance to Lebanon, to help it deal with the influx of Syrian refugees and prevent them from reaching the island located in the eastern Mediterranean." In an interview with the Cypriot official radio, Yiannou said: "Estimates indicate that there are around 2.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, so you can imagine the magnitude of the problem that Lebanon itself faces, which has a population of between five to six million, and does not even receive technical or financial assistance from the European Union." He added: "This is something we are striving for." He pointed out that "Nicosia has offered to donate fast boats and conduct joint patrols with Lebanon, after new arrivals by sea indicated that smuggling routes have shifted away from Turkey and towards the Lebanese coast." This initiative is the latest among several initiatives proposed by Cyprus in recent months to curb the wave of irregular migration that began around 2017. There are about 800,000 Syrians in Lebanon registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Lebanese authorities say the actual number of Syrian refugees in the country is two million.